"And now The Demon King has ascended", - Highs and Lows of 2016

DM_7

"And now The Demon King has ascended", words of Corey Graves as Finn went to the top rope to hit his finisher and become WWE Universal Champion.

2016 was an interesting year in wrestling, things that jump into my mind are Goldbergs return to WWE, Brocks return to UFC (and Drug Failure), TNA's continued troubles/survival, the continued growth of OTT, brand split giving us Smackdown, Daniel Bryans retirement, AJ Styles joining WWE and becoming WWE Champion, Nakamura in NXT and WWE's Aggressive signing strategy.

The highlights for me are AJ and Finn Bálor. Low moments are Bryan's necessary retirement.

WWE released their matches of 2016 on the network. One selection was Finn v Seth for the Universal title. This match summed up high and low all in one. Rewatching it I still can't believe how strong he was put over. From the moniker Demon King to kicking out of a pedigree to beating Seth Rollins clean in a debut (main roster) PPV match. Fantastic moment, the injury then strikes to halt his momentum.

So what are you highlights, low moments or just mind boggling moments in 2016?

Blue_Dabadee

Highs:
- AJ Styles and Nakamura joining WWE
- Broken Matt Hardy
- Womens division in WWE; getting rid of butterfly belt
- Smackdown since brand split
- CWC
- The Miz
- Talking Smack
- Heath Slater
- Goldberg's return to WWE

Lows:
- NXT weekly show
- Raw
- WrestleMania
- Cruiserweight division

Omackeral

Highs:
Shane O Mac returns
Gallows and Anderson debut

Lows:
Shane O Mac fights Taker for no reason
Gallows and Anderson booked like sh*t

PTH2009

highs

AJ Styles wwe debut
Brand split (although i was a bit wary of it at the start)
Finn Balor on the main roster
Goldberg and Shane Mcmahon returns
Growth of NXT
Chris Jerichos 2016 WWE run
On a personal level finally seeing The Tv tapings live in person in Glasgow last November

Lows

Undertaker vs Shane (had a few good spots but a waste of an undertaker match at mania)
The whole vince lock box thing that went nowhere
Sting, Daniel Bryan retiring
Finn Balor injury
Roman Reigns been shoved in our faces

DM_7

The lock box mention reminds me of how bad the McMahon feud/game of trying to outdo each other was.

In the end Shane's return was a big let down.

PTH2009

DM_7 wrote: »

The lock box mention reminds me of how bad the McMahon feud/game of trying to outdo each other was.

In the end Shane's return was a big let down.

In fairness the Shane return was kept very quite and surprised a lot of us that night on raw

DM_7

PTH2009 wrote: »

In fairness the Shane return was kept very quite and surprised a lot of us that night on raw

Oh the actual return night was great, even the Taker match was interesting.

The let down was him losing then staying around anyway (and what he got up to).

Ali Bomaye

For me 2016 has been a year of so many highs as a wrestling fan. I finally got into watching New Japan regularly and I'm glad I did. The Kenny Omega vs Tetsuya Naito was my high point in NJ, one of the greatest matches I've ever seen.

Another big high was seeing just how much OTT has grown. Smile vs Scrull, Kings of the North vs War Machine, Ospreay vs Ricochet, selling out 2 nights in a row for WrestleCon. Just an insane year for them.

WWE wise I've really enjoyed so much as well. Nakamura vs Zayn and DIY vs Revival the high points from NXT.
The other big high of 2016 for me has been Smackdown Live. I genuinly look forward to the show very week. Seeing AJ Styles as WWE Champion and being the focal point of the show while being absolutely brilliant has been so great. Also seeing Becky win the title and be such a big part of the show has been great. I really think she's well above the rest of the women on the main roster.

I don't have too many lows. Wrestlemania being fairly poor and RAW not being particularly good I suppose.
The big one is probably just how bad NXT tv has gotten, it's almost unwatchable some weeks and I can't see it improving in the build up to the next Takeover.

OTT wise having their women's champion wrestle that match with Joey Ryan while women's wrestling is been taken more seriously than ever was poor.

Blue_Dabadee

NXT weekly show has really lost it charm this year. I always thought it was a great weekly alternative to main roster product from 2012 to 2015.

I suppose it mostly down to the fact that they lost their head creative writer to Smackdown.